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Stockport
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Stockport | |
  Stockport shown within Greater Manchester |
|
| Population | 136,082 (2001 Census) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| Metropolitan borough | Stockport |
| Metropolitan county | Greater Manchester |
| Region | North West |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | STOCKPORT |
| Postcode district | SK1, SK2, SK3, SK6,SK7,SK8 |
| Dialling code | 0161 |
| Police | Greater Manchester |
| Fire | Greater Manchester |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | Stockport |
| European Parliament | North West England |
| Website: www.stockport.gov.uk | |
| List of places: UK • England • Greater Manchester | |
Stockport (pronunciation ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. Situated 7 miles (11.3 km) south east of the city of Manchester, it is the largest settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, and has a population of 136,083 (2001 Census), with the borough as a whole having 281,000. This makes the borough 23rd most populous district in England. There have been several bids by the council for city status.
The River Mersey begins in Stockport, at the confluence of the Rivers Goyt and Tame.
Contents |
Stockport is first recorded as "Stokeport" in 1170.[1][2] The currently accepted etymology is OE stoc, a market place, with port, a hamlet (but more accurately a minor settlement within an estate); hence, a market place at a hamlet.[1][2]
Older derivations include stock, a stockaded place or castle, with port, a wood, hence a castle in a wood.[3] Other derivations have been formed, based on early variants of the name such as Stopford and Stockford. There is evidence that a ford across the Mersey existed at the foot of the town centre street now known as Bridge Street Brow. Stopford retains a use in the adjectival form, Stopfordian, used for Stockport-related items, and pupils at Stockport Grammar School style themselves as Stopfordians.[4]
Stockport has never been a sea or river port. The Mersey is not navigable to anything much above canoe size, and in the centre of Stockport has been culverted and the main shopping street Merseyway built above it.
There is sufficient evidence that a fortified stronghold existed in the vicinity in ancient British times, and that Agricola in AD 79 recognised its strategical advantages and fortified Stockport to guard the passage of the Mersey.[3]
After the Norman Conquest, it became ruled by a hereditary Baron of Stockport.
The town was connected to the national canal network by the 5 miles of the Stockport branch of the Ashton Canal opened in 1797 which continued in use until the 1930s. Much of it is now filled in, but there is an active campaign to re-open it.
The first borough charter was granted in about 1220 and was the only basis for local government for six hundred years.
From the seventeenth century Stockport became a centre for the hatting industry and later the silk industry. Stockport rapidly expanded during the Industrial Revolution, helped particularly by the growth of the cotton manufacturing industries. However, economic growth took its toll, and 19th century philosopher Friedrich Engels wrote in 1844 that Stockport was "renowned as one of the duskiest, smokiest holes in the whole of the industrial area".[5]
Since the start of the twentieth century Stockport has diversified away from a town dependant on the cotton and allied industries to one with a varied base.
In 1967 the Stockport air disaster occurred, when a British Midland Airways Argonaut crashed in the Hopes Carr area of the town, resulting in the deaths of 72 passengers.
In recent years, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council has embarked on an ambitious regeneration scheme, known as Future Stockport. The plan is to bring over 3,000 residents into the centre of the town, and revitalise its residential property and retail markets, in a similar fashion to the nearby city of Manchester. Many ex-industrial areas around the town's core will be brought back into productive use as mixed-use residential and commercial developments.
Most of the town is within the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, although Reddish and the Four Heatons lay within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire.
The 1835 Municipal Corporations Act made Stockport a municipal borough divided into six wards with a council consisting of 14 Aldermen and 42 Councillors. In 1888, its status was raised to County Borough, becoming the County Borough of Stockport. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972 Stockport amalgamated with neighbouring districts to form the Unitary Authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in the now ceremonial metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.
There are four parliamentary constituencies in the Stockport Metropolitan Borough: Stockport, Cheadle, Hazel Grove, and Denton and Reddish.
Stockport has been represented by Labour MP Ann Coffey since 1992.
Mark Hunter has been the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheadle since a 2005 by-election.
Andrew Stunell has been the Liberal Democrat MP for Hazel Grove since 1997.
The constituency of Denton and Reddish bridges Stockport and Tameside; the current member is Andrew Gwynne.
- Further information: Demography of Greater Manchester
The town had a population of 136,082 according to the 2001 Census, with the wider borough having a population of 284,528. Although suburbs such as Woodford, Bramhall and Hazel Grove rank amongst the wealthiest areas of the United Kingdom and 45% of the borough is green space, districts such as Adswood and Brinnington suffer from widespread poverty and post-industrial decay. In the north-west of the borough are the relatively prosperous areas of Heaton Moor and Heaton Mersey, which together with Heaton Chapel and Heaton Norris comprise the so-called Four Heatons.
Opinions on the general quality of life in Stockport greatly differ.[citation needed] In its favour, some highlight its proximity to Manchester, and its abundance of amenities; but its perceived grittiness and loutish youth culture earned it 12th place in the internet-based 2004 guide Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places To Live In The UK (however, given that its fellows on this list were places such as Oxford, Winchester, Liverpool (European Capital of Culture), and tiny London commuter belt villages, the relevance of the list is disputed).
Stockport's principal commercial district is located in the town centre, with branches of most high-street stores to be found in the Merseyway Shopping Centre. The Grand Central Leisure Park complex boasts an Olympic sized swimming pool, a ten-screen cinema, bars, a bowling alley, health complex, and several restaurants. Stockport is located six miles (10 km) from Manchester city centre, making it convenient for commuters and shoppers.
Stockport is home to the following:
- Bramall Hall is a superb example of a 'Cheshire Black and White' timber framed manor house, with origins dating back to Medieval England. The property presents the visitor with a historic record spanning six centuries.
- Stockport's last[citation needed] working hat factory is now the "Hat Works" hat museum.
- One of the Western Europe's biggest brick structures[6], the 111 feet (34 m) high, four-track railway viaduct on the line to Manchester which represents a major feat of Victorian engineering built in 21 months at a cost of £70,000. Eleven million bricks were used in its construction, opening in 1842. The foundation stone was laid March 10, 1839.
- Staircase House is a Grade II listed medieval town house in the Market Place. The building has been modified several times, but is probably the oldest secular building in Stockport.[7]
- Stockport Story Museum, detailing over 10,000 years of Stockport's history. This museum has free admission and is housed within Staircase House.
- Stockport Town Hall, with its ballroom, described by Poet Laureate, John Betjeman as 'magnificent' containing the largest Wurlitzer theatre organ in Britain designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas.
- Stockport College with sites in the town centre and Heaton Moor
- Underbank Hall in the centre of Stockport is a late 16th century timber framed building, built as the town house of the Arderne family from nearby Bredbury. It remained in the family until 1823, and since 1824 has been used as a bank. The current main banking hall lies behind the 16th century part and dates from 1915.[7] The building is listed Grade II*.
- Stockport Air Raid Shelters is a museum based around the underground tunnels dug during World War II to protect local inhabitants during air raids
- Vernon Park. This is the main municipal park, located a short distance to the east towards Bredbury. It was opened on September 20th 1858 on the anniversary of the battle of Alma. Named after Lord Vernon who presented the land for the Park to the Town.
- St. Elisabeth's church, Reddish, and model village. Mill community designed in the main by Alfred Waterhouse for the factory workers from Houldsworth Mill, at the time the largest cotton mill in the world.
The M60 motorway and A6 road cross over at Stockport. Stockport railway station is a mainline station on the Manchester spur of the West Coast Main Line. Manchester Airport, the busiest in the UK outside London, is located five miles (8 km) southwest of the town.
Stockport is home to two professional sports teams, both of which play at Edgeley Park stadium. Stockport County F.C. play in Coca-Cola Football League Two; their claim to fame is that they currently hold the record for the most consecutive Football League wins without conceding a goal with nine, achieved in 2007.
The Sale Sharks rugby union team share the stadium; they won the Guinness Premiership title in 2006 and boast current England internationals Mark Cueto, Charlie Hodgson, Andrew Sheridan and Andy Titterrell; Scotland's Jason White as well as capped overseas stars including Sébastien Chabal, Sébastien Bruno, Ignacio Fernández Lobbe.
Stockport Metro Swimming Club,based at Grand Central Pools Stockport is the most successful British Swimming club, through the last 3 Olympic Games Stockport Metro swimmers have claimed 50% of British Swimming's medal haul. In the 1996 Atlanta Games Graeme Smith won Bronze in the 1500m Freestyle and in the 2004 Athens Games Stephen Parry won Bronze in 200m Butterfly.
The town of Stockport is twinned with the following towns:
As one of the larger towns in the UK, Stockport and its surrounding villages have had many notable residents throughout their history including some as diverse as novelist Christopher Isherwood, engineer Sir Joseph Whitworth, tennis player Fred Perry, Judge John Bradshaw and architect Norman Foster. Distinguished first-class cricketers Fred Ridgway and Maurice Tremlett were born in Stockport and played test cricket for England.[8][9]
- ^ a b Arrowsmith, Peter (1997). Stockport: a History. Stockport: Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, p 23. ISBN 0-905164-99-7.
- ^ a b Mills, A D (1997). Dictionary of English Place-Names (2nd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280074-4.
- ^ a b Local History. Stockport MBC web pages. Retrieved on 2007-04-02.
- ^ Old Stopfordians' Association. Stockport Grammar School web pages. Retrieved on 2007-04-03.
- ^ Engels, Frederick [1845] (1969). "The great Towns", The Condition of the Working Class in England. Panther. “Stockport is renowned throughout the entire district as one of the duskiest, smokiest holes, and looks, indeed, especially when viewed from the viaduct, excessively repellent.”
- ^ Stockport Railway Viaduct.
- ^ a b Arrowsmith, Peter (1996). Recording Stockport's Past: Recent Investigations of Historic Sites in the Borough of Stockport. Stockport: Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. ISBN 0-905164-20-2.
- ^ Fred Ridgway player profile. Cricinfo.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-27.
- ^ Wisden Cricket Monthly. Maurice Tremlett player profile. Cricinfo.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-27.
- Stockport Council
- HatWorks Museum
- Stockport County Football Club
- The Stockport Express
- The National Library for the Blind
- National Trust
- Stockport Harriers and Athletics Club
- Stockport Grammar School
- Stockport College
- Merseyway Shopping Centre